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The Star Tugs Company
The Star Tugs Company Ltd. is a trust founded in early 2013, and sets out to exhibit, preserve and maintain the original model props used for the filming of Tugs. History Various cases containing face-masks and buoys for Tugs characters were put up for auction on eBay UK in mid-2012. Soon after in December of that year, pictures of the model props for the face-masks were posted by the owner on this Wiki and equally were also placed for sale. However, the owner of the models agreed to trade to members of SiF (short for Sodor Island Fansite) so that they would be in safe hands and with suitable owners. The official handover of the models was in January 2013, and four months later on May 7th, The Star Tugs Trust was officially launched. Plans and intentions for the models' well-being and the trust's aims were thoroughly discussed, and the original name "The Star Tugs Trust" was changed to "The Star Tugs Company Ltd." for copyright reasons. From January 17, 2014 to February 16, 2014, The Star Tugs Company had held a "KickStarter" campaign. They were in the need to raise money, in order to refurbish the eighteen Tugs models that they had held and place it in a well decorated British Railways MK1 coach. The coach will serve its purpose by being a museum for the Tugs models and hauling it from place to place in it's outings. The Star Tugs Company has succeeded by funding £11,350 with seventy-nine people who had helped along the way. Although O.J. was the first model to be on public display on the 22nd May 2013, the first official outing for the company was on the 8th-9th March 2014 at the Battlefield Railway. Models Star Fleet * Ten Cents * Big Mac * O.J./Lakesider III * Warrior * Hercules * Sunshine Z-Stacks * Zorran * Zebedee * Zak * Zug * Zip Other Characters * Lillie Lightship * Billy Shoepack * Bluenose/Sea Rogue * Boomer/Sea Rogue's Uncle * Burke & Blair/The White Fleet/The pirates * Fire Tug * Sally Seaplane (Replica of the original model) * Duchess/Princess Alice/S.S. Vienna (Currently in the guise of S.S. Roxstar from the Thomas & Friends TV Series - on loan from HiT Entertainment/Mattel Creations) Building *LT Building (on loan from HiT Entertainment/Mattel Creations) Other Props *Upriver Tugboat Hull Mold *Prototype Lillie Lightship Facemasks *Wooden Hats from Vacuum-forming *Grey Resin Zorran Facemask In total, twenty models are currently owned. Missing Models * Top Hat * Grampus * Izzy Gomez * Sally Seaplane (Original model) * Johnny Cuba * Nantucket * Kraka-Toa * Big Mickey * Coast Guard * Coast Guard's Messenger * Lord Stinker * Pearl * Frank and Eddie In addition, they are missing models of many barges and cranes used in dockside scenes. Events Past Events: 2013 * 22nd May - The Battlefield Railway, Leicestershire, England, UK. Only O.J., in his current 'Lakesider III' guise. He was showcased along with a large collection of TUGS and Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends merchandise. * 21st November - Gloucester Docks Museum, Leicestershire, England, UK. Zug had an unplanned day out raising awareness of the trust and the TV show. 2014 * 8th - 9th March - The Battlefield Railway, Leicestershire, UK. Launched the 25th Anniversary tour events, the trust took on its first official outing. A fundraising campaign (which ended succesfully at a sum of £11,350) was organised to support the exhibition and future intentions for the models. * 17th - 18th May - Moira Canal, Leicestershire, UK. A different selection of the 18 models available would've been on display, and preview clips from the fan run 'TUGS CGI' project, all part of the Moira Canal 14th annual festival. * 22nd June - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. A different selection of the 18 models would be on display, with Tugs being on TV and included some merchandise to sell. * 11th July - The TUGS make it into the Model Boats Magazine once more in the August 2014 issue. * 12th July - Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway - Leadhills, England, UK. This marked the first time that the Tugs models were on display in Scotland * 13th July - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. The Star Tugs Exhibition will be open in this location. * 13th -14th September - Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Heritage Way, England, UK. This event featured the models Ten Cents, Sea Rogue and Zip. This will mark the last event held in Scotland for their tour before heading back home to the Midway Railway Exhibition. * 27th - 28th September - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. This event celebrated the 25th anniversary since Tugs has premiered. All 18 models were all be on display, including "Phoenix", Sally Seaplane's spare model prop. 2015 * 20th - 22nd February - Brighton Model World - Brighton Centre, Brighton, England, UK. * 6th - 7th June - The Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire, England, UK. All of the current models were on display over that weekend and a new variety of merchandising items were available for sale. Top Hat, Grampus and Sea Rogue's face masks were also on display, as was an unpainted copy of one of Zorran's face masks. Fire Tug was on display without a face. * 2nd August - Steam Tug Brent of 1945 - Maldon, England, UK. Four of the current TUGS models were on display alongside the model of Steam Tug Brent during the day. * 26th - 27th September - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. This is the second big event like last year with the return of Boomer and the Top Props Co. as guest stars. 2016 * 19th - 21st February - Brighton Model World - Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK. This is the Star Tug Company's second joint event with the Top Props Co. * 26th - 28th March - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. All of the current models were on display at the refurbished exhibition coach, along with props and face masks to celebrate the trust's second year at the railway since the exhibition coach's opening in March 2014. * 9th - 10th April - Tanfield Railway, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. * 23rd - 24th April - Nene Valley Railway, Peterborough, UK. * 25th - 26th June - The Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire, UK * 24th July - The TUGS Exhibition Coach was re-opened at Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. * 27th - 29th August - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. 2017 * 15th - 17th April - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. * 24th - 25th June - The Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire, UK. * 24th - 25th June - North Weald Airfield, Essex, UK. * 26th - 28th August - Sally Seaplane Reveal - Midland Railway Centre - Butterly Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. 2018 * 21st - 22nd April - Star Tugs Spring Spectacular - Midland Railway Centre - Butterly Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. (Previously named Tornado & Tugs Weekend) * 14th - 15th July - Star Tugs At Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire, UK. * 25th - 27th August - The Bigg Weekend - Midland Railway Centre, Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, UK. This event celebrated the Trust's 5th Anniversary as well as the beginning of the upcoming 30th Anniversary of TUGS. All nineteen models from the exhibition will be on display. * 10th November - VIP Exclusive Event: TUGS' 30th Anniversary - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. This private event was exclusively held to a limited number of visitors to celebrate the unofficial anniversary of TUGS (first released on VHS in November 1988) and to see the LT Garage building set piece and the Duchess/Princess Alice/S.S Vienna ocean liner model (the latter being kept as a surprise and not directly mentioned on the order of events beforehand) from the show. Both props had last been used on-screen at Dockside scenes of Thomas & Friends, between Series 3 - 7. Help and support was given from Mattel Creations & HiT Entertainment to allow them to showcase the items, which will go on to be publicly-displayed from March 2019 at the Midland Railway - Butterley, after their first unveiling in November 2018. Cancelled Events: 2018 * 21st - 22nd April - The Tornado & Tugs Weekend - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. ** On the 14th April, the locomotive that was to join the Star Tugs Exhibition at the Midland Railway - 60163 4-6-2 "Tornado" - experienced mechanical problems whilst on another tour. Whilst the engine was under repair, "The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust" postponed Tornado's visit to the railway, effectively cancelling the proposed "Tornado & Tugs" Weekend. Despite this, The Star Tugs Trust decided to carry on holding their planned weekend exhibition, changing the name to "Star Tugs Spring Spectacular" instead. Upcoming Events: 2019 * 9th - 10th March - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. ** This will be celebrating the first public event of the official 30th anniversary of TUGS. * 13th - 14th April - Avon Valley Railway - Bitton Station, Bitton, Bristol, England, UK. * 20th - 21st July - The Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire, England, UK. * 24th - 26th August - Midland Railway Centre - Butterley Station, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. Trivia * The group intends to invest in a "Bigg City" Diorama in the future, which will be an interactive display for events. * There are possibilities for The Star Tugs Company to make replicas of the original models for multiple purposes. * The Star Tugs Company is currently attempting to locate the models for Top Hat and Grampus. ** These models were lost after the TUGS TV series ended, so their whereabouts currently unknown. Their face masks (apart from Top Hat's scared face and Grampus' thrilled face), are now the only part that is left of them. ** Boomer's face mask was moulded onto his model. They only found one piece of his actual original face. It is unknown which face it belongs to. Nobody knows if any of his original faces still exist. * In 2018, the Trust acquired the original LT garage prop and the Duchess/Princess Alice/S.S. Vienna ocean liner used in the show to be publicly-displayed in 2019. The props are currently on loan from HiT Entertainment/Mattel Creations who gave them permission to display them at the Star Tugs Exhibition. Links The following are links to various Star Tugs Company Ltd websites: * The Star Tugs Companies Website * Blog Page * Youtube Channel * Facebook Page * Twitter Page * Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign Gallery Images courtesy of Terrier55Stepney, Dan5589, Jenkins92 and The Star Tugs Company Ltd. File:TSTCOriginalLogo.png|Original logo File:TenCents'Model.png|Ten Cents File:BigMac'sModel.jpg|Big Mac File:OJ'sModel.jpg|O.J/Lakesider III File:Warrior'sModel..png|Warrior File:Hercules'Model1.jpg|Hercules File:Sunshine'sModel.jpg|Sunshine File:DSCN0508.JPG|Sunshine with a custom made happy face File:Zorran'sModel.jpg|Zorran File:Zebedee'sModel.jpg|Zebedee File:Zak'sModel..png|Zak File:Zug'sModel.jpg|Zug File:Zip'sModel.jpg|Zip File:LillieModelUpClose.jpg|Lillie Lightship File:SEA ROGUE.JPG|Bluenose/Sea Rogue File:Boomer-SeaRogue'sUncleModel.jpg|Boomer/Sea Rogue's Uncle File:BoomerModel.jpg|Boomer with recreated face mask File:BillyShoepack'sModel.jpg|Billy Shoepack File:FireTug'sModel.jpg|Fire Tug File:Burke'sModel.jpg|Burke/White Fleet/Pirate File:Blair'sModel.jpg|Blair/White Fleet/Pirate File:BillyShoepack'sModel2.jpg|Billy Shoepack when bought File:ModelBoatsMagAugust2014.jpg|The Trust gets an article on the tugs! File:DSCN0500.JPG|Sea Rogue's Uncle with Boomer's nameplate File:SeaRogue'sUncleModel.jpg|Boomer with Sea Rogue's Uncle's face and funnel File:BoomerFaceMask.jpg|A piece of one of Boomer's face masks File:DSCN0514.JPG|Zorran's face mould File:DSCN0515.JPG|A banner for the company Replicas File:Sally seaplane replica.jpg|Sally Seaplane Replica Category:Organisations